My Dear, Valentine

ace remained close to mine. I shut my eyes, holding my breath as hi

ad happened. The engine roared to life while I sat frozen,

side was a blur. My heart still hadn't caught up with my body, and I felt li

. And just like before,

no experience with men-no defenses a

l. No, not just kissing. He likely

s met mine. And last night-when his fingers trac

ce burned just

ut a second thought, while I was left half-mad trying to process it. Of

shouldn't sting-but it did. As if I was just another task on his list, another girl

here," he remarked, snapping me

e wavered. Pathetic. Even now, I cou

into her brothel," he explained. I cleared my throat, desperate to

the house alone. We don't

his jaw ticked with tension. He wasn't just worried for me-he was ready t

een us before he finally ask

got ever

nything else," he said

laudia Davis lives there-Patrick Davis's second wife. S

ick Davis?"

ther. Hans Da

image to attach to it-no bedtime stories, no wrinkled hands reaching fo

the names. My own family

ather... s

bedridden-par

first husband: Mark and Selena Da

he Davis estate was c

n, Brian. Selena divorced ye

ther?" I tried picturi

hin the estate for his stepchildre

ho drove my mother aw

about Emily's affair, m

walk away from the life she'd built. From the man she loved. From the family that never tru

see my mother-carrying me as a

ns to listen-only to have the door slammed in her face. And now, decades later, I

d I even do working at my father's estate? First, I nee

ing too hard,

dreaming,

ur father

idn't know what

to care... but

r from the Davises. If they discover you're

determined to de

knuckles whitening as if he too carried the weight of that question. The silence

ce low. "Emily was kind, clever... but she was too bright for people who live in sha

the surge of anger and grief clawing its way up my throat. It wasn't fair.

falling off a broken chair in the tiny apartment we'd lived in. My mother had patc

did. Not